Source A: Reading the room differently

An original contemporary non-fiction-style practice text, written for this question.

The manager said I needed to make returning customers feel remembered. I agreed. I could remember that a woman wanted dressing separately, that a man always asked whether the soup contained celery and that a couple preferred the table away from the speaker. What I could not reliably do was attach those facts to a face when it appeared at the door in a different coat or beside a different person.

I had spent years covering that difficulty with a broad smile and a greeting vague enough to fit anyone. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes I asked a regular customer whether they had visited before and watched the answer change their expression. It looked as though I had not cared enough to remember. Explaining that I remembered the meal but not the face sounded like a poor excuse even to me.

During one busy lunch, I welcomed a man as the person who had organised a birthday booking. He was not. He looked offended, and I apologised. Afterwards, the manager suggested that I pay more attention. I described the details I could recall about the booking: the missing chair, the cake arriving late and the guest who needed a quieter corner. He listened, then asked why I had not recognised the organiser. I said that this was the part I had been trying to explain.

We discussed a different greeting routine. For bookings, we asked names clearly and checked the reservation rather than pretending instant recognition. Colleagues used names naturally when introducing familiar customers. I kept the preference notes in the agreed system, where they belonged to the service rather than to a private test of my memory. Nobody was asked to announce personal information across the room. The arrangement was ordinary, which was one of its strengths.

It did not solve every awkward moment. Someone arriving without a booking could still expect me to know them immediately. I learned to explain briefly when that happened instead of producing a more elaborate performance of recognition. A few people found this surprising. Most preferred a clear question to being confidently mistaken for somebody else.

I care about the work. That is why I want the order right, the table suitable and the explanation accurate when something goes wrong. A quick flash of recognition can make a welcome warmer, but it is not the only evidence of attention. At the door now, I begin with what I can honestly know. When a customer gives a name, the evening acquires its right person, and I can get on with remembering what that person needs.

Source B: Young and dyslexic? You’ve got it going on — Benjamin Zephaniah

Read Source B in the official Pearson anthology (printed pages 12–13).

Compare how the writers present their ideas and perspectives about the difference between an outward impression and a person’s actual abilities.

Support your answer with detailed examples from both texts, including brief quotations.